The First Cornerstone of Your Practice As a Paramedic Is Having the Ability to Gather

·  The first cornerstone of your practice as a paramedic is having the ability to gather, evaluate, and synthesize information.

·  Once you have gathered information, you must assess and evaluate this information as to its validity and the impact it will have on the patient care plan you are developing.

·  Once you have evaluated the information you obtained from the scene, the patient, or any bystanders and determined what information is valid, then you need to process—or synthesize—that information.

·  The second cornerstone of your practice is the development and implementation of patient care plans.

·  Your care plan is almost always defined by the patient care protocols or standing orders in the EMS system where you work.

·  The third cornerstone is judgment and making independent decisions.

·  The fourth and final cornerstone of your practice is your ability to think and work under pressure.

·  The first stage of the thought process in prehospital care is gathering information—things you see, hear, smell, or feel. This is concept formation.

·  The second stage of the critical thinking process is data interpretation—evaluating the information you have gathered.

·  The last stage in the critical thinking process occurs after the call is over and is commonly associated with run review or run critiques. Look back at the total call and reflect on how you processed the signs and symptoms and reached the decisions that you did.

·  The Six Rs can be used to summarize what must be done on a call:

-  Read the scene

-  Read the patient

-  React

-  Reevaluate

-  Revise the plan

-  Review your performance

·  Excellence in prehospital care results from a constant striving to improve your practice, which requires that you ALWAYS have an attitude that is open to learning.